I'm finally awake enough to type coherent sentences so here goes.
I went into labour at 5pm on Monday (26th May) . By 8:30pm while attempting to watch the final double episode of my favourite program, the contractions were coming 5 minutes apart and were quite painful so off we went to the hospital. Turns out I was only 1-2 cm dilated. We came back home.
Then just after 1am I caved in and went to the hospital and got an epidural, best decision I made. By then I was only 3cm dilated (what happened to the 1cm per hour rule? Try 1cm in 4 hours).
About half an hour after the epidural my blood pressure dropped really low and I felt extremely sick and started shaking badly. Thanks to the great nurses they sorted it out and I felt fine.
My LO on the other hand wasn't doing so well. Everytime I had a strong contraction his heart rate would drop below 100, sometimes as low as 50! They broke my waters to try take some pressure off him which didn't help. Eventually they stuck something into my vagina to drain something (sorry, but by now I was a stress ball and can't remember what they said they were doing). They suspected he had the cord around his neck and everytime I had a contraction it was pulling it tighter.
By 6am I was only 4cm dilated and they reckoned I would deliver between 11am and 12.
At 7:45 the new nurse came and checked me again only to inform us that I'm fully dilated and baby's head was right there. My doc got there asap and by 8:15 everything was setup and ready. The actual pushing part took about 3 minutes and baby was born. They put him straight on my chest only to take him away immediately as he was going blue. Once on oxygen he was alright though, but my heart sure skipped quite a few beats. I'm not sure how many stiches I got, I know I saw her do at least 5.
The delivery of my placenta went all wrong. Part of it broke off and the rest remained so I was taken off to theater where they went inside with scary instruments and cut it out. I felt like I was part of a scene in ER with 7 doctors / nurses all standing around me.
They were very worried as I started losing a lot of blood from when they broke my waters. It continued through most of the day so I was poked and prodded lots more. I was close to needing a blood transfusion, but luckily the bleeding slowed down.
At 9pm they finally took the 2 drips out my hand and took the catheter out. I was overjoyed at being allowed to get up as I had been stuck on my back unable to move for 20 hours
Now only 3 days later I'm off the painkillers, baby is going great especially now that my milk has come. Didn't think I could fall in love with something this quickly.
In the end it is all worth it (never thought I would hear myself say that). I'm just so grateful that the nurses and the doctors at the hospital I was at were so great.
Haven't downloaded the pics of my camera, but I promise I will post a pick.
I went into labour at 5pm on Monday (26th May) . By 8:30pm while attempting to watch the final double episode of my favourite program, the contractions were coming 5 minutes apart and were quite painful so off we went to the hospital. Turns out I was only 1-2 cm dilated. We came back home.
Then just after 1am I caved in and went to the hospital and got an epidural, best decision I made. By then I was only 3cm dilated (what happened to the 1cm per hour rule? Try 1cm in 4 hours).
About half an hour after the epidural my blood pressure dropped really low and I felt extremely sick and started shaking badly. Thanks to the great nurses they sorted it out and I felt fine.
My LO on the other hand wasn't doing so well. Everytime I had a strong contraction his heart rate would drop below 100, sometimes as low as 50! They broke my waters to try take some pressure off him which didn't help. Eventually they stuck something into my vagina to drain something (sorry, but by now I was a stress ball and can't remember what they said they were doing). They suspected he had the cord around his neck and everytime I had a contraction it was pulling it tighter.
By 6am I was only 4cm dilated and they reckoned I would deliver between 11am and 12.
At 7:45 the new nurse came and checked me again only to inform us that I'm fully dilated and baby's head was right there. My doc got there asap and by 8:15 everything was setup and ready. The actual pushing part took about 3 minutes and baby was born. They put him straight on my chest only to take him away immediately as he was going blue. Once on oxygen he was alright though, but my heart sure skipped quite a few beats. I'm not sure how many stiches I got, I know I saw her do at least 5.
The delivery of my placenta went all wrong. Part of it broke off and the rest remained so I was taken off to theater where they went inside with scary instruments and cut it out. I felt like I was part of a scene in ER with 7 doctors / nurses all standing around me.
They were very worried as I started losing a lot of blood from when they broke my waters. It continued through most of the day so I was poked and prodded lots more. I was close to needing a blood transfusion, but luckily the bleeding slowed down.
At 9pm they finally took the 2 drips out my hand and took the catheter out. I was overjoyed at being allowed to get up as I had been stuck on my back unable to move for 20 hours
Now only 3 days later I'm off the painkillers, baby is going great especially now that my milk has come. Didn't think I could fall in love with something this quickly.
In the end it is all worth it (never thought I would hear myself say that). I'm just so grateful that the nurses and the doctors at the hospital I was at were so great.
Haven't downloaded the pics of my camera, but I promise I will post a pick.
not easy xx
Sorry you had such a rough labor but congrats on the arrival of your LO
